Portrait Painting From Photo

When painting a portrait, I prefer combining live posing sessions along with photos I can refer to without the presence of the sitter. However, some portrait commissions must rely on a single photograph a client has chosen to be replicated into a portrait painting. More often than not, the photo I receive has been taken with a flash camera, virtually flattening the image and losing much needed detail when composed onto a much larger scale. This offers a number of challenges in which artistic licence must be taken to enhance, alter, and add to what will eventually become the finished portrait.
Follow my process as I post images of this paintings developement.

Hit the Painting From A Photo link to bring up the different days of painting I've added to my blog.
Any comments are welcome and appreciated.